This year’s review identified several foreign social media and file transferring websites, as well as a number of Internet service providers (ISPs), as being notorious markets including those hosted or located in Argentina, the British Virgin Islands, Canada, China, Czech Republic, France, Netherlands, Panama, Philippines, Poland, Russia, San Marino, Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and Vietnam. Additionally, physical markets in Argentina, Brazil, China, Ecuador, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria, Paraguay, Thailand and Uruguay were also identified as being notorious markets.

The USTR also highlighted a number of recent developments including efforts by certain previously listed Chinese sites to curb piracy activities on their websites, as well as increased enforcement actions by rights holders and government officials to shut down physical and online markets in Brazil, the European Union and Ukraine among others.

What’s The Takeaway? As we have said before, every foreign market has its own IP protection challenges. U.S. businesses that operate abroad or are expanding into new markets should review the USTR’s 2014 Out of Cycle Review of Notorious Markets to help evaluate the IP protection risks associated with particular markets they wish to enter. Doing so can help to ensure that such businesses can better protect their IP assets abroad.

The United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office (UK IPO) released a report today providing a comprehensive and insightful breakdown of online copyright enforcement regimes in multiple countries. Titled International Comparison of Approaches to Online Copyright Infringement, the report evaluates online enforcement regimes in many of the world’s major markets including Brazil, Canada, France, Italy, The Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, the U.K., and the U.S. Beyond providing in-depth details and statistics on each country’s online enforcement procedures that international IP policy nerds like myself find interesting, the report highlights how each country’s enforcement regimes have dealt with the proliferation of broadband Internet and various online media services. It is also a good primer for practitioners to understand online copyright enforcement procedures across borders. Give it a read!